Haruhi Suzumiya
Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒ Suzumiya Haruhi) is the founding member of the SOS Brigade with the purpose of finding aliens, time travelers and espers. Although she doesn't know it, all the members of the SOS Brigade she recruits, besides Kyon, happen to fit into these groups (Yuki Nagato, Mikuru Asahina, and Itsuki Koizumi respectively). She is incredibly eccentric and anti-social, with no interest in "ordinary" humans. She also, unknown to her, has the god-like abilities to change, destroy, and reshape reality. It is said that if she were to become bored enough with the world, she could simply erase it and start a new one. After revealing themselves to Kyon, the trio of Yuki, Mikuru and Koizumi all state they were sent by their respective higher-ups to watch over her, and Koizumi specifically mentions they must keep her entertained so she doesn't become too bored. Appearance Haruhi has a pale skin tone, big brown eyes and brown hair. At the beginning of the series her hair is long and reaches to about her waist. She always had different hairstyles everyday. However after a talk with Kyon about her hair, she cuts it to just about her shoulders. Haruhi is always seen wearing a orange-yellow ribbon/head band in her hair. Personality Haruhi is a bright, energetic and athletic high-school student. Many male students consider her attractive. She alternates between melancholy and incredible optimism, often unpredictably. Haruhi is indeed stubborn and doesn't like to admit her mistakes, usually blaming other people. Also, she gets angry very easily, being an irascible and impulsive person. Her behavior was considered eccentric, and she had little interest in her classmates, at least until Kyon "convinced" her to form the SOS Brigade. Afterward, she became more mentally stable and gradually connected with schoolmates in club activities. First in Snow Mountain Syndrome and later in The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya, it is mentioned she is good at cooking. Haruhi reveals that the reason why she is good at cooking is due to her mother having "awful taste" and always measuring ingredients and spices by the eye causing every meal she makes to "never taste quite the same each time" so in primary school (elementary school) Haruhi attempted to cook on her own and found that she had somewhat of a natural talent for it and insisted on cooking her own meals ever since. Her mother's low cooking skills are also the reason why Haruhi never brings a lunchbox to school. Interestingly enough, this is all of the information Haruhi reveals (with reluctance) about her mother upon mentioning her for the first time other than saying "She works a lot, and so we help each other out." Kyon criticized Haruhi's tea making skills, noting it was just hot water. Though Haruhi's personality may be described as overpowering, it's useful to say the least. Haruhi has a knack for convincing others to do what she wants. Biography When Haruhi was in sixth grade, she went to see a baseball game with her parents and was shocked by the sheer amount of people attending. After finding out that the large amount was only a small piece of the entire world, and realized that she was only a small part of it, Haruhi believed herself to be ordinary, and deduced that if there is someone out there with an interesting life that it should be her. This results in Haruhi's desire to find strange things. During elementary school, she came to know Sasaki, under the surname Sasaki was using at the time. Middle School Haruhi In middle school, East Junior High, Haruhi becomes known for several things, such as putting talismans up around school, dating and often immediately dumping every guy who asks her out, and, most notably, drawing a huge graffiti mural on the field on the night of Tanabata, year 0. Kyon was actually the one who drew this under Haruhi's orders after he and Mikuru traveled back in time. (According to Yuki Nagato, the mural meant "I am right here".) Thanks to the dark, Haruhi could not make out his face, and so Kyon used the alias "John Smith" to further keep himself secret. "John Smith" implied to Haruhi that there were strange things out there and that there might be interesting people at North High, inspiring her to attend the school. Shortly after, the same night (from Haruhi's perspective), Kyon shouted out to her "Cheers to saving the world by overloading it with fun with John Smith!" after returning the second time from the future in the Dissapearance. The consequences of her ability erupting was a timequake preventing time traveling to before this point. This also seems to have sundered the timelines of Fujiwara and Mikuru Asahina. Until she went to high school, Haruhi sought "John Smith" at other schools, but was unable to find him. The SOS Brigade ]] When Haruhi attends North High, she introduced herself to Class 1-5 in a strange way, saying she was only interested in aliens, espers, time travelers and sliders. Kyon was intrigued by this introduction. His new friend Taniguchi noticed Kyon's interest. Taniguchi had gone to her middle school and told Kyon of her strange behavior there. Kyon noticed her continuing to act strangely: Haruhi joined and abandoned each of the school's student clubs in a day (even abandoning the Supernatural Research Society), and changed her hairstyle for each day of the week (in an effort to attract aliens). Kyon began talking to Haruhi about her strange behavior, making him the first person there to openly talk to her. Their first conversation was about her hair style changes; she asked if they had met before. She takes an interest in him because he reminds her of John Smith. When he asked her about joining clubs, she told him they were all boring. Due to the conversations, Kyon drew the attention of Ryoko Asakura, the club president, who was happy that Haruhi was paying attention to him, and upset that Haruhi ignored her. Afterward Asakura repeatedly changed the seating arrangements, but Haruhi always ended up sitting behind Kyon. Haruhi told him about all the clubs she had joined, and why they were so boring. Kyon gave a long speech about human inventiveness. Haruhi's immediate reaction was negative, but during a class she excitedly announced she would form her own club. She dragged Kyon with her to a room used by Yuki Nagato of the Literature Club to use as their club room and abducting Mikuru Asahina, at which she announces the name of the club—the SOS Brigade—and transfer student Itsuki Koizumi to join her club, Haruhi unknowingly drags the exact types of people she wants into her life. Club room.jpg|The club room and the SOS Brigade When Haruhi sees Kyon wrestling with Mikuru over a computer mouse, she becomes jealous and creates an alternate reality (a closed space) in which she and Kyon are the only inhabitants. This becomes a threat, as the new world would possibly replace the old world. By kissing her, using clues from Yuki and a future Mikuru, Kyon convinces Haruhi to bring the old world back. Haruhi thus becomes a participant in many activities surrounding her that she does not understand: the SOS Brigade wins a competition by modifying a bat; a logo for the SOS Brigade that she creates awakens an ancient data lifeform; she causes time to loop over and over because she does not want summer to end; she confuses the fictional world with the real world while filming a movie, causing the movie's events to come true; Yuki must hack into a computer game in order to satisfy her desire to win it; the world is altered, creating an alternate version of her with no powers; a mysterious alien entity traps her and the SOS Brigade in a strange mansion; a Mikuru from eight days later appears behind her back. Over the vacation between first and second year at North High, Haruhi met Kyon and his friend from middle school Sasaki. Unfortunately, Sasaki introduced herself as an "old friend" of Kyon's, seemingly making Haruhi jealous. This resulted in the creation of closed space. In her second year, Haruhi starts to accept new first-year recruits into her Brigade, but is picky about who enters; she kicks out who she wants and challenges those who have the guts to return to the brigade room. When Yuki mysteriously falls ill, Haruhi organizes the rest of the brigade to go rescue her. In The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya, she shows a much more human and even motherly side when she cooks and makes remedies for the ailing Yuki. Her intuition skills also show that she possibly thinks/knows that Yuki does not have a simple cold. The Future In "Editor-In-Chief★Straight Ahead!", it is revealed that Haruhi was the one to create the central foundation for the time plane theory, eventually resulting in Mikuru's ability to time travel. Because Haruhi lives next door to the boy who is implied to have created Mikuru's TPDD, Kyon realizes that it is possible for the boy to have seen the theory and thus create the mechanism. Other Versions Alternate Haruhi Alternate Haruhi appears in the Disappearance arc. She does not attend North High, but instead attends Kouyouen School with Itsuki Koizumi. She becomes a key player in this arc, and helps Kyon to return to his former world. When Kyon tells her about espers, time travelers, and aliens, she believes him and helps gather all the members of the brigade, allowing Kyon to go back in time to Tanabata, year 0, call out to Haruhi to "take care of Kyon" and eventually restore the world. (This erased the alternate reality constructed by Yuki Nagato.) College Haruhi College Haruhi briefly appears near the end of The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya when Kyon time hops to a few years into the future and lands on a college campus in front of Haruhi Suzumiya. She asks him why he's wearing his "old high school uniform" then is called out to by someone in the distance (College Kyon). She appears confused and surprised as to why a uniform clad Kyon was in front of her and a normal one calling out to her at the same time. Kyon time hops to another time-plane right after that. Her age is speculated to be anywhere from 19 to 22. Kyon comments that her hair had grown out since high school. There are no current images of College Haruhi, however Noizi Itou, the illustrator of the light novel series, has expressed an interest in drawing her and hinted there may be one in the near future. Yasumi Watahashi Yasumi Watahashi (渡橋泰水 Watahashi Yasumi) is a character introduced in the α timeline of The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya. Biography Timeline In the timeline, she was the one who initially called Kyon on Saturday evening. She expected him to recognize her voice, and said she was only expecting to say hi to him and hear his voice. Kyon briefly seemed to confuse her with Haruhi. She also said that if she needed to trouble him another time, to please take care of her, and wanted to be with him for a longer time. Yasumi was initially presented as a freshman showing interest in joining the SOS Brigade, becoming the only one to pass the "tests" Haruhi sets forth (the last one being to match Haruhi's endurance in a marathon) to join on Wednesday. She became an extremely enthusiastic member on Thursday. Haruhi told the SOS Brigade members to instruct her in things like tea making. Kyon felt there was something unusual about her, but when he told Koizumi this, he said that he felt no worry. "No matter what happens after this, it should not be something bad." Yasumi served tea, then Haruhi told her to work on the website. Haruhi specifically mentioned that Kyon had worked on it, but Yasumi insulted its crudity. Kyon, feeling suspicious, invited Koizumi outside to "play catch", but this was really an excuse to discuss Yasumi without Haruhi overhearing. Koizumi said that Yasumi was probably there because Haruhi desired a new club member, and furthermore he believed that Asahina knew nothing about her. While they tossed balls at each other, Yasumi threw them a paper airplane. It had a message written on it: "Mikuru folder discovered!" Meanwhile Yasumi had charmed Asahina and Nagato, the latter even lending Yasumi a book. Upon returning, Kyon noted she had greatly altered the website, but Yasumi had left early. She had apologized repeatedly to Haruhi, saying something had come up. However, when Kyon made it home, Yasumi was waiting in his room for him. She said she just wanted to visit him, but made confusing statements, such as not being able to keep pets anymore and wanting to see some in friends' houses. She noted Shamisen's intelligence. She left quickly, saying "let's meet again" and asking him not to hate her. Asahina revealed that Yasumi had left a strange flower (from the mountain near Tsuruya's place) at the clubroom. On Friday morning, Kyon found a note from Yasumi on his shoes, asking him to meet her at 6 PM in the SOS Brigade clubroom. Kyon was worried, as a previous note delivered to him in this way nearly resulted in his death at the hands of Ryoko Asakura, so he first tried to find Yasumi, and upon failing to find her he went to Nagato for assistance. Nagato told him she was nothing, but there was no student by that name at the school. Nagato also said she was "different" from an alien, time traveler, esper or slider. Nagato couldn't reveal if Yasumi was normal "at that moment" but said the meeting would likely have a positive outcome, and that Yasumi could assist him in some matter. Meanwhile, Yasumi met Haruhi and told her she had to skip class going to the clubroom that day. At the clubroom after school, Koizumi arrived late, and noticed the flower that Yasumi had brought. He took pictures of it and sent it to sources, who informed him it was an orchid. Kyon had to embarrassingly excuse himself to avoid Haruhi and return to the clubroom. He found Yasumi there, and she looked happy. She said she didn't know what would happen, when someone knocked at the door. Another Kyon walked in, and Yasumi got them to clasp hands and combine into one. It transpired that Yasumi had contacted Koizumi in a similar manner, and his two selves had combined by this point. Timeline On Thursday, Kyon briefly met her at the SOS Brigade clubroom. She called him "sempai", but noted she'd made a mistake. She said they would meet again before vanishing. On Friday, after school, Kyon met with Sasaki, Fujiwara and Kyoko Tachibana and took a ride to North High. Tachibana admitted them to the school, which was under Sasaki's closed space. Upon entering the clubroom, they discovered another Kyon along with Yasumi. She got the Kyons to clasp hands and combine into one. Meanwhile, her self had summoned Koizumi, and Koizumi showed up as he was following the SOS Brigade's foes around. They combined into one Koizumi as well. Combined Timeline A disembodied voice (Yasumi's) explained what happened to Kyon. Meanwhile the school appeared to be within Haruhi's closed space as well as Sasaki's. Kuyou used her powers to summon Haruhi to threaten her and so force Kyon to move Haruhi's powers. When negotiations proved fruitless, Kyon jumped out of a window to catch Haruhi. Both looked like they would fall to the courtyard and die from the fall. However, they were caught by the hand of a celestial. The celestial started attacking the clubroom, when time slowed down... Kyon noticed Yasumi standing on the roof of the school. Kyon and Haruhi were taken away to separate times and places. (Haruhi was simply returned home. Kyon appeared a month later in Haruhi's bedroom, requiring Asahina to return him to his proper time.) Afterward, Koizumi opined that Yasumi was a portion of Haruhi's subconscious. While Haruhi didn't know about her own powers and was insensate during the aggressive negotiations, Yasumi had a much better idea of what was going on, and deliberately ended Sasaki's closed space. Both closed spaces crumbled when Kyon and Haruhi were taken away. Koizumi explained Yasumi's name (an anagram of Haruhi Suzumiya) to Kyon. By the next Monday Yasumi had contacted Haruhi and let her know she had to quit, as she wasn't really a North High student. Yasumi claimed to be a middle school student who had acquired a North High uniform. Observation Nagato and Koizumi both denied that there was anything unusual about her; Koizumi admitted she might be a little unusual but that it amounted to nothing, and she wasn't a threat to the Brigade. Watahashi requested her name be spelled in a certain way (to make her name's meaning more obvious), wears a hairpin with an emblem of a faint smile (at the end of The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya, Haruhi comments on Yasumi's hair accessory and mentions that she wore something similar herself in elementary school), and wore a North High uniform which appeared to be too large for her. She is described by Kyon as a girl that was moe in a different manner than Mikuru Asahina. Yasumi demonstrated great intellect, such as immediately finding and opening the sealed "Mikuru" folder on the Brigade computer. While doing so, she hummed a tune that Haruhi had learned during Live A Live. She soon displays the ability to create separate timelines (as she had intervened in Kyon's phone call to Sasaki in order to prevent a meeting with her companions), and eventually merge them in order to help Kyon out of the crisis they cause. She also has the ability to create Closed Spaces and Celestials. She is eventually revealed to be a part of Haruhi's subconscious that had noticed that the SOS Brigade was in trouble and thus appeared to help them. She eventually vanishes once the crisis is solved, with Haruhi attesting that she appeared at her door admitting that she was a middle school student who had snuck into the SOS Brigade. Itsuki notes that the proper kanji reading of her name yields "Watahashi Yasumizu" (渡橋泰水); rearranging the syllables yields watashi ha(wa)Note that in Japanese, the particle indicating the subject of a sentence, is pronounced "wa" but written "ha" Suzumiya, "I am Suzumiya", indicating her true identity. Powers Haruhi has the ability to create reality (or "data"), but the power is unconscious and she is unaware of it. Just by thinking, she can alter reality. Sometimes this manifests as the ability to make something of her desires truly exist, such as closing off a remote island with fog (to enhance the atmosphere of a murder mystery). When she is overjoyed, her abilities have changed the weather, made animals speak and even changed the orbit of the Earth. Many of her powers are implied in the series and not stated outright. In The Melancholy novel, class president Ryoko Asakura (secretly a humanoid interface) changed the class seating patterns numerous times, but in every instance, Kyon ended up sitting in front of Haruhi. Kyon couldn't understand why he felt the need to attend the SOS Brigade's early meetings. ]] In , Yuki Nagato said Haruhi's abilities summoned or awoke a data organism (creating terabytes of data in what seemed like a simple image), and in Wandering Shadow it was implied that Haruhi's abilities summoned another type of data organism. In the first case, Nagato was able to reverse Haruhi's alteration of reality. In Endless Eight, Haruhi's powers created a time loop, which she herself never noticed, nor did most humans, but Kyon, Koizumi and Asahina often did. (Nagato was fully aware of the time loop due to her humanoid interface nature.) Closed Space :Closed space When her emotions become unstable, she subconsciously creates closed space and celestials which begin to take over the world, destroying things. 'Agency' espers such as Itsuki Koizumi believe it is their duty to destroy the celestials, restoring normal space. Koizumi said that the system was born of "common sense"; Haruhi encloses the celestials in closed space to prevent destruction in the "real world". According to Itsuki Koizumi, Haruhi's powers created espers like himself, time travel and even aliens such as Yuki Nagato. (This is in contrast to time traveler Mikuru Asahina, who vehemently disagrees with this. Nagato stated that her organization, the Data Overmind, existed even before humanity, which would conflict with Koizumi's statement as well.) Koizumi said that Haruhi has the power to create a new world (destroying the old one in the process) and the "current world" came to exist as a result of Haruhi's power. As a result, some of the 'Agency' believes Haruhi to be a "god". While Koizumi initially said he might agree with this statement, he later admitted to being a skeptic, saying that if she were a god, she could not live in this world without becoming self-aware, but since Suzumiya lives in the world she can alter without noticing, Koizumi concludes that she can only alter the world to a certain extent. He states that Haruhi does not really believe in espers, aliens and time travelers, and they only exist because she subconsciously wishes them to do so. If she ever became aware of them, or other strangeness such as "talking cats", she would recreate the world in such a way that talking cats made sense. Koizumi feared this would "overthrow all the concepts already known to mankind". Koizumi believes that someone granted Suzumiya these powers, but also prevented her from knowing about them. This entity is more likely to be a god. "The reality right now may be a failed product of creation, and perhaps Suzumiya-san was given the mission to amend this flawed world." If the world were recreated, humanity could be wiped out, but this hasn't happened, due to her consciousness leaning toward creation rather than destruction. If her mentality became negative, she might focus on destruction. Koizumi prefers to live in the "current" world despite its problems, as humans would eventually sort them out. Rival esper Kyoko Tachibana believes that Sasaki originally had these powers, and some were mistakenly transferred to Haruhi. She wishes to move these powers back to Sasaki. She and Koizumi strenuously disagree on these beliefs. According to time traveler Mikuru Asahina, "Suzumiya-san does indeed possess the power to change the 'present,' but I don't think she has the ability to reconstruct the world. This world has been this way since the beginning, it's not created by Suzumiya-san." Sasaki has similar abilities, signifying that Haruhi is not the only one with these powers. Esper Kyouko Tachibana believes that Sasaki originally had these powers, but they were "stolen" from her and given to Haruhi instead. Tachibana wishes to recover this power. Creating Alternate Realities Haruhi has the ability to split and recombine reality into two alternate parallels. She demonstrated the ability to subconsciously create a younger copy of herself, Yasumi Watahashi. In The Disappearance Yuki Nagato was able to "steal" Haruhi's abilities, creating yet another reality, although the changes were eventually reversed by previous and future versions of herself, Mikuru Asahina (big) and Kyon. Relationship with SOS Brigade members Kyon Kyon was the first person Haruhi ever spoke with in high school. Of all characters in the series, Kyon is Haruhi's sole voice of reason, and is the only person Haruhi will ever take advice from, such as making her forfeit their team's place in the baseball tournament, adding a fiction disclaimer for the SOS Brigade movie, and convincing Haruhi to revert the universe back to its normal state. Haruhi is implied to have unrequited feelings for Kyon, although she maintains that love is a sort of mental illness. It has been reccuringly shown that Haruhi becomes irritated whenever it is even implied that Kyon is interested in or is the subject of interest of another girl (such as in The Boredom, she suggests putting Mikuru's hair in ponytail, but after a quick look at Kyon, she drops the subject entirely), likewise when she accidentally reads a confession of love to Nagato that seemed to have been written by Kyon she immediately erupts into fury. In the film version of the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya the alternate Koizumi theories that she does in fact hold romantic feelings for Kyon given that she willingly opened up to him despite him seemingly being completely ordinary. Though this is not outright stated in the film it is strongly hinted at when Koizumi, after admitting that he fancies Haruhi in this universe, states "I'm jealous of you" with it mostly being cut off from Kyon and the viewers by a train speeding past, showing that he realises Haruhi holds romantic feelings for Kyon. In the same story, Koizumi (the real one) also notes that he had never seen Haruhi so distressed when Kyon falls down a flight of stairs and ends up in a coma, she subsequently spends the next three days with Kyon in the hospital even bringing a sleeping bag with her. On multiple occasions, Haruhi's attempts to interact with Kyon on a deeper level seem to be thwarted by the same world that bends to her will, such as Haruhi's failed attempts to go on a date with Kyon during the SOS Brigade's search for mysterious phenomena, and Haruhi trying to throw grass at Kyon, only to have the wind blow it back at her. Regardless, Haruhi's relationship with Kyon has often been described as an unbreakable bond of trust. It is because of this bond that Haruhi chooses Kyon to be the only being to be with her when she attempts to recreate the world, despite knowing Kyon for such a short amount of time. Haruhi often exploits Kyon's apparent (to her) lack of imagination. Anytime she has a task that would be complicated by somebody else's creativity, she'll assign that task to Kyon. Examples include drawing her message on the school quad, converting her drawing and uploading it to a website, pointing a camera as she directs, and going to pick up a room heater without picking apart the deal she made for it. She is shocked whenever he manages to mess up such simple tasks. Because Kyon is always busy snarking in his own head, Haruhi sees him as a warm body who can provide silent support when searching for a missing classmate or dealing with the gratitude of a rock band she helped out. His presence means she's not alone when skating out at the limits of her bravado. In addition, near the end of The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya, the college version of Haruhi is shown to have a relatively close relationship with the future Kyon. Mikuru Asahina Haruhi views Mikuru more as an object for boy appeal than a person, which is most clearly defined in The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya when she declares Mikuru to be her toy even in a serious fight. Haruhi often dresses up Mikuru in cosplay outfits or sexually harasses her. Haruhi believes that any resistance from Mikuru is "futile" and had no compunctions about going to her house and "abducting" her to play her role in her movie when she claimed she was ill. She is also somewhat hostile because she believes Kyon has a crush on Mikuru. Later on in the series, Haruhi begins to grow genuine affection for Mikuru and began to respect her rights more. Much like Kyon and Koizumi, the two of them are best friends by The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya and she feels the need to look out for her as well as Yuki Nagato. Yuki Nagato Although Yuki is technically a member of the Literature Club, Haruhi includes Yuki in the Brigade. Haruhi perceives Yuki as a gullible and vulnerable girl, even though the opposite is true. Haruhi also values Yuki's presence in the Brigade, exemplified when Kyon tells Haruhi a false story about Yuki possibly having to move away and Haruhi threatens to give "Yuki's parents" a piece of her mind. Haruhi has taken a protective (also egotistical) role over Nagato. When she thought Nagato had gotten sick in Snow Mountain Syndrome, she insisted on carrying her (over Nagato's protests). She also defended Nagato's Literature Club from the Student Council President, and when Nagato got sick in The Dissociation, she ordered the Brigade to report to her apartment daily to take care of her. She has on occasion showed jealously toward Nagato's relationship with Kyon, seeming irritated during club events when she spent time alone with him. Itsuki Koizumi Haruhi brings Itsuki into the SOS Brigade because he fulfilled her supernatural expectation of a "mysterious transfer student". Even though Kyon sees it as overly obvious that Itsuki is only being a kiss-up, Haruhi laps up all the compliments and agreements Itsuki throws at her. Haruhi also seems to believe whatever Itsuki says, as he was easily able to convince her that she went under self-hypnosis in "Snow Mountain Syndrome". Haruhi may be the least suspicious of Itsuki, because he is the brigade member who is the most careful to not "hit on" Kyon when Haruhi is watching. (Mikuru is too clumsy and Yuki lacks the empathy to see the problem.) But she has a problem accepting praise and this may reduce Itsuki's reliability in her eyes in favor of the more silent support Kyon offers. Voice Actress Haruhi's Japanese voice actress, Aya Hirano, won the "Voice Acting Award" in the Sixth Annual Tokyo Anime Awards and a nomination for the "Best Actress in a leading role" category from the first Seiyū Awards. In the English dub her voice actress is Wendee Lee; she also does Haruhi's voice while she sings in the episode Live Alive. Trivia *A short profile found in the game "The Perplexity of Haruhi Suzumiya" affirms that Haruhi's birthday is on October 8th, her blood type is AB and rates her weight at 44 kg. (97 lbs.). Notes es:Haruhi Suzumiya Category:Characters